About this event
Please note, this event has been postponed. We are working to fix a new date.
It’s virtually impossible to read a newspaper or news website, or listen to, or watch, a news bulletin, without encountering a story about the current housing crisis. The figures are stark. We are now building a third fewer houses than we did 50 years ago and that’s with a population now one third larger. How do we explain this drop?
Simple. In 1972, 122,000 homes were built by local authorities, but in 2022, it was just 4,000. The result of this housing shortage is easy for all to see – average rents in Brighton and Hove rose from £1,250 a month in 2020 to almost £2,000 today; in Worthing they’ve risen from £875 to £1400.
Property prices have also been on the up; in Shoreham, for example, they’ve risen by 30% in the last five years. The end result is plain to see: Young, and not so young, people and families still living with parents and the number of rough sleepers rising, up 27% this year in Brighton and Hove.
So is the answer to loosen planning controls and give a free hand to the developers – along the A259 for example? Or are there other considerations?
The housing debate is complex but vital and the next Tackle the Issues will have a panel of housing experts (named below) – and you – to see if together we can see a way through one of the biggest problems we face.
Tackle the Issues is a joint initiative between Ropetackle, Shoreham Wordfest, and the University of Sussex.
The Panel:
Paul Miner – Head of Policy and Planning for the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE). He has worked on housing issues for many years with published reports on Land Use in the UK and Design Quality for Housing.
John Holmstrom – Chief Executive of Turning Tides, with more than 40 years experience in the housing sector, has a reputation for initiatives transforming the lives of the homeless and those whose lives are blighted by trauma, poverty, mental health and addiction.
Gill Williams – Deputy Leader of Brighton and Hove Council and Chair of the Housing and New Homes Committee.
Professor Sasha Roseneil – Vice-Chancellor of University of Sussex. Formerly Pro-Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences; Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Essex; and leadership positions at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Leeds. She has an international reputation for her pioneering research on intimate relationships, citizenship, and social movements.
Originally trained as a sociologist, and later as a group analyst and psychotherapist, Sasha has played a leading role in establishing the interdisciplinary fields of Gender Studies and Psychosocial Studies. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is also a member of the Institute of Group Analysis and a Founding Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council.
